Pick of the Week

November 17, 2010 – Batman, Incorporated #1

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Avg Rating: 4.5
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 7.9%
 
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Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by YANICK PAQUETTE
Inks by MICHEL LACOMBE
Colors by NATHAN FAIRBAIRN
Letters by JOHN J. HILL
Cover by J.H. WILLIAMS III
Variant cover by YANICK PAQUETTE

Size: 32 pages
Price: 3.99

It truly is a new era for Batman, and more specifically (because now we have to be) Bruce Wayne.

In a way, Batman, Incorporated #1 feels like Grant Morrison finally fulfilling a promise he made when he first became the writer on Batman in 2006. In interviews he promised a new turn for Batman, a Batman we hadn’t seen regularly since the 1970s and 80s. Morrison said that his Batman would be globe-trotting. Morrison said that his Batman would be lighter and sexier than he had been in the past.

And then he immediately delved into Damian Wayne and The Black Glove and Dr. Hurt and Professor Pyg and The Joker and suddenly four years passed. In the midst of all those dark and psychological explorations, everyone seemed to forget about the sexy international adventures of Batman that Morrison had originally talked about.

Well, here they are.

It was a big week for Batman comics that set up the new status quo in Gotham City (and beyond). Batman: The Return was a one shot that was also written by Grant Morrison and it should have really been titled Batman, Incorporated #0 because it did all the heavy lifting of laying out the new chess board and moving the pieces into place. When I finished reading it at first I thought that it should have really been the first issue of Batman, Incorporated but when I finished the actual first issue I knew how wrong I was. Having Batman: The Return do all the work of transitioning the old Batman status quo into the new allowed for Batman, Incorporated #1 to jump right into the action and exist entirely on its own in this new world.

And, oh, what a fun new world this is.

After returning from his Darkseid-imposed journey through time, Bruce Wayne claims that he has seen the bigger picture, and that bigger picture involves him amassing an army to fight crime on a global scale. With his sons Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne left behind to protect Gotham City as Batman and Robin, Bruce’s new mission is to train and deploy Batmen all around the world. His first stop? Tokyo. But not before he and Catwoman steal something important from Doctor Sivana’s secret armory in Gotham. After that caper, Bruce takes Selina along with him to Japan. Her reward for all the hard work (including fighting a Giant Robot Mouse) is to hang out in a luxurious suite in a hotel owned by Bruce Wayne.

This is where the sexy comes in.

There were four main Batman books this week and Catwoman appeared in all of them, displaying various degrees of happy to see Batman back from the dead — including both tongue lashing and tongue wrestling. Mostly the latter. Here in Batman, Incorporated, Catwoman seems positioned as Batman’s new international partner in sexy crime fighting. By night, they swing among the rooftops and bash the hell out of criminals, bantering and flirting the entire way. By day, they lounge in opulent hotel suites, bantering and flirting in their underwear until sexy fun time.

This is a whole Mr. and Mrs. Smith meets Nick and Norah vibe in a Batman book is totally new to me and completely and utterly fantastic. I really hope it continues on and that Catwoman doesn’t decide to hop a flight back to Gotham when the Tokyo adventure is over. Batman is almost always better when he has a partner and this new dynamic he has with Catwoman is too good to lose.

But it’s not all flirty banter, lacy underthings, and drinking champagne from the bottle. There is serious crime to attend to in Japan, starting with the fact that Mr. Unknown, the Tokyo version of Batman, has been (gruesomely) killed by a super villain named Lord Death Man who now has his sights set on Mr. Unknown’s side-kick. It’s the first day of Batman, Incorporated and everything has already all gone to hell!

Grant Morrison’s story, and all its many facets, is wonderfully brought to life by Yanick Paquette, an artist who I don’t have a ton of history beyond a lot of cover work, but I really like what I see here. The art is appropriately exciting. There are big action panels throughout the issue that are dynamic and packed with detail. But there are also a lot of moments where story or character is conveyed through facial expression (like when Catwoman discovers tentacle porn manga) that Paquette also wonderfully. This is a great pairing of story and artist.

For years now, many DC books — particularly those written by Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison — have featured fun and often innovative ways to end their issues, especially the first issues. Johns was a fan of showing glimpses of what was to come in the story in the upcoming months (and years). In Batman and Robin, Morrison would often use the final page to show scenes from the upcoming issue. Here he uses the final page in a slightly different way. The page consists of three horizontal panels showing the big cliffhanger of the issue (Catwoman jumping into a tank of water to save Mr. Unknown’s side kick’s girlfriend from drowning, despite the fact that she specifically told Batman she’d only come along to help as long as no water was involved!). In-between each panel were captions that acted as teasers for next month, which were very much in the style of the old Batman TV show:

Lord Death Man lives to take life, and he’s only just begun! Can Batman solve the reaper’s riddles? Or will curiosity kill the cat?

And then when you turned the page you got a full page shot of Catwoman struggling under water with a giant squid as the tied up girlfriend is running out of air with a caption at the bottom reading: Find out next month in Batman Inc.! I loved this device and as I read the captions I totally heard William Dozier in my head.

I cannot overemphasize how much I love this and a lot of that has to do with the tone of the book. Batman, Incorporated #1 is an international adventure that’s fun and funny, action-packed and sexy, and all of those different elements are perfectly balanced. If you were someone who didn’t like Morrison previous run on Batman this might be the book for you. It feels completely new and different from what came before but it’s just as wonderful.

Conor Kilpatrick
Never have I coveted Bruce Wayne’s life more than I do now.
conor@ifanboy.com

 

Comments

  1. Dammit I had already decided I was going to take a break from batman, but then Conor comes in and pulled me back in. This sounds great and may have to pick these up next week.

  2. I like the vibe of the book a lot.  Yanick Paquette’s Batman is very Phil Hester-like, and that is a good thing.  Great way to start things and I’m excited to see where it goes from here.

  3. This is the DAWN OF THE BATMAN!! LONG LIVE THE GODDAMN BATMAN!!!

  4. So as a buyer mostly not of works from either of the majors (more Vertigo, Boom etc) would this be a book that makes sense without reading the other Batman titles or other DC Universe titles? Or would adding this to my pick list be starting down a slope I can’t afford where I’d need to add a lot of other titles to make sense of what is happening…

  5. @rycaut: I think you can totally jump into this without having read anything else. Everything you need to know is pretty much on the page.

  6. i have to echo Jediaxle.  I was going to sit this one out, but after reading this I’m not so sure anymore…

  7. Best panel of the issue: The shot of Catwoman’s ass.

  8. That cover is sooo good.  Can’t wait to read this bad boy.

  9. Between this review, the Scott Snyder interview, Tomasi soon on Batman and Robin, and the fact I just forwarded my girlfriend a link to amazon listing the first 5 grant morrison trades or so as an xmas hint, 2011 is shaping up to be the year of the bat for this reader.

  10. This book was fantastic. I have not been this excited about a Batman comic in a very, very long time. Great job to the team!

  11. Great pick, Conor. Truly a great time to be a Bat-fan, a Morrison Bat-fan in particular.

  12. It was a good issue, but I find it difficult to believe that Return of Bruce Wayne 6 (last week) or Batman: The Return (this week) didn’t get the ‘pick’ status while this did.

     

    Frankly, of the three recent Grant Morrison offerings, I thought this was the weakest. Still an awesome issue, because it’s Grant Morrison, but…

  13. Still need to read some of my books, but man was this FUN. As a POTW, I might go with The Return over this one, mostly because The Return one-shot really set the new status quo, and it was a very dynamic shift. It reminds me a bit of Joe Casey on Wildcats 3.0, where Casey came up with the concept of "corporation as super-hero." This is not quite THAT, but for Batman, it’s a pretty big shift in tone, direction and scope.

    This particular issue executed on that new status quo very well, fun and adventurous while still smart and a little gritty. I’m definitely on board.

  14. Wow that cover is Fantastic!!!

  15. So interesting to hear! I read the last issue of Return of Bruce Wayne yesterday and said to no one in particular, "Enough! Enough of this. No more of this Morrison and his crazy nonsense." Plus, everything about the final pages of the last Batman & Robin screamed to me, "This is not Batman!"

    Seeing Conor Kilpatrick give this the seal of approval, however, and seeing the how-and-why of him doing so, seals the deal for this cynic. Conor knows better than I what says "Batman" and what says "very much not Batman." I am a hardened grump looking for fun; maybe this is just the ticket.

  16. I LOVED the nod to the old Adam West Batman series at the end of this. Really good stuff.

  17. From the cover to the last panel, this was a visual drug that melted my brain. Stunning!

  18. This was great and I think we are about to begin a new chapter in the batman saga. It’s never been a better time to start reading batman and all the related books!

  19. Wonderful issue. I love that Selina tagged along the way she did. It hit the right beats and pulled the right strings. A very promising beginning.

  20. @jimski – I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Dig in.

  21. I had to choose between the Batman returns one shot and the 100 page batman, so I missed the introduction to the batman apparently.  But I read this and it was great.  I was a bit lost at first, because I had to figure out which Batman I was reading about, but Selina being there made the transition easier.

  22. I’m on board.  Adding "Batman Incorporated" to my stack.  "The Return" one-shot was also good. 

    It’s interesting that Christopher Nolan made Batman a global crimefighter w/o jurisdiction in "The Dark Knight"; I like that Morrison is making some pretty strong connections to the films.  If Alfred starts to look like Michael Caine though, I might call foul. 

    I’ve also read a preview of "Detective Comics" and like what I’m seeing.  I don’t really have any experience with Dick Grayson as Batman, so I think this will be the other pull for me.  I can handle Damian in small doses.

    Does anyone know anything about "Batman: The Dark Knight"?  It’s the other Bruce book, so I’ll at least sample the first issue.

  23. ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    Same ‘ol Grant turd.

    Fables Deluxe Edition vol. 2 HC gets my vote.

     Matthew 

     

  24. @srh1son: As I mentioned in the Pick of the Week, Batman the global crime fighter was quite common in the 1970s and 80s. Batman chasing criminals all across the globe is certainly not something Nolan came up with.

  25. That’s true; I know of that period very generally.  I would love to read those issues, but I’m not sure what’s been collected.  Suggestions?  This is the period that Ra’s al Ghul was introduced, right?  I loved reading "Son of the Demon" a few months ago.

    With Ra’s and the League of Shadows having such a role in "Begins", it would seem that Nolan liked aspects of that period.  So does Morrison apparently.

    I was just saying that especially in "The Return", Lucius Fox and the Batmobile both read as gracious shout-outs to the films.  I always thought of the Animated Series version of Lucius, and didn’t even know the comic book version.  Now he looks like Morgan Freeman.

     

  26. Yeah, this was definitely my pick as well–super-fun, exciting, cool and sexy superhero comics in the Grant Morrison fashion. I loved it so. 😀

  27. @Srh1son – some of it is collected in the Neal Adams collections. Highly recommended.

  28. This first issue read a lot like a hybrid of Paul Dini’s Animated Series and the current Batman seen in Nolan’s films. A good balance of drama, action, and overall silliness to make this a fun read. It wasn’t my pick sadly, as I felt that Paquette’s pencils took a bit long to get used to for me. It wasn’t bad, don’t put words in my mouth, but I think I need to get used to his pencils to really appreciate it. That and Lacombe’s inks didn’t mesh well with Paquette’s pencils. But it was still a fun first issue and with Lord Death Man as the first villain, you bet your ass I’ll be around for the next issue.

    My POTW was ‘Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil’ btw. A fun one-shot filled with two stories with a fantastic script by Mignola and gorgeous pencils as always by Richard Corben. 

  29. Why has no-one commented on the link between the final splash page and Catwoman’s first experience of ‘Tentacle Porn’? It was weird and scary and meta and I am not sure how i feel about it, although I definitely enjoyed it as a GOOD comic book.

  30. batmans back folks.on a side note if you getto see the morrison documentery check it out

  31. I didn’t think I would like it, but I wound up LOVING it.  I’ve always been a fan of the dark Batman.  I like the idea of him being more underground and not accepted by the world.  But, at this point, maybe that’s run it’s course.  Plus, with so many Batbooks out now, you can pick your tone.

     I absolutely love that Catwoman keept looking at the Hentai book the whole time, and how that forshadowed the last page of her with the squid.  That was just perfect.  

  32. @cabernetfranc – I found that scene (and the callback) quite funny.

  33. @conor – You forgot to mention that the book was sexy!

    Great review, great POW, great book.

  34. i was really on the fence about getting this—-your review and other’s positive feedback has convinced me to give it a try. Looking forward to today or tomorrow when i can snag it. 

  35. Man, this was so much fun!  I caught myself smiling as I read through the entire book, but mostly when that final teaser page!  P.S.  Damian’s long leg in "The return"  first splash page is driving me nuts!

  36. Awesome book – I love how Bruce is kicking into crime-fighting overdrive now that he’s back, but is taking the time to enjoy getting straddled on a weights bench.  He’s had a hard few (hundred?) years, bless his little kevlar socks.

  37. Y’know, aside from the POTW, I just want to add that this was a fantastic week of comics for me. I had 7 books this week, and they were ALL 4s and 5s. And fairly diverse as well — from The Sixth Gun to Hellboy to Hellblazer to Hulk to Batman — these books were all firing on all cylinders. Happy fan, I am.

  38. This was a worthy pick, and mine as well, but @conor, we all need you to regularly work the phrase "sexy fun time" into every review from now on.

  39. Wow, I was totally lukewarm on this. Looking forward to hearing you guys’ opinion!

  40. I liked the one shot Batman Return issue a little more but this was still good.

  41. Conor, great review — spot on!  I loved Batman Incorporated.  I especially liked the implied sexual relationship between Bruce and Selina.  It’s about time that they both had some personal happiness.  I also really liked Batman: The Return.  It was a nice set-up and introduction to BI. 

    I very much like the "new normal" in the world of Batman and associates.

  42. I recommend this to anyone. It’s a fantastic fun story and a perfect jumping on point.

  43. Is this a good jumping on point into the Batman stuff? Other than the early Quitely issues of B&R (I dropped it after the artist changover), I have not read a in-continuity batbook in years. Not since Hush. Conor makes ths sound crazy good.

  44. You can tell I’m not a "Batman guy", I picked this up on a whim and my reaction after reading it was "eh".  I’ll give someone my copy.  

  45. I loved it.  I can’t wait to read #2!  It’s definitely not a bad time to be a Batman fan right now.  It looks like this relaunch will even beat out Batman Reborn (after BFTC)!!

  46. This was very good.

  47. Great stuff we got here…. I assume he will give the batmantle to the sidekick.  He just experienced the loss of his master and may even now lose his girlfriend.  It all relates back to Hurt’s understanding that a tragedy drives the bat. And It’s Morrison so the past is defnitly not gone forever. 

    …but that’s just me

  48. It was ok.  Also picked up on a whim.  I liked the art a great deal but I don’t think I’ll be back for issue 2.  I’ll get my Batman fix with Detective Comics when Snyder and Jock come aboard. 

  49. This was really fun. I love the campy bad guy names and the innept henchmen. The fact that Bruce as Batman is getting out of Gotham is really fun.  I love the Selina and Bruce Dynamic and i really loved the 60s TV show feel to the last 2 pages. This really went beyond expectations…i think this might become my new batbook. 

  50. It’s great to breathe in new life

    but let’s not get too much "lighter" some things are just better in their natural habitat.

    Conversely I wouldn’t want to see a grittier – edgier Howard the Duck.

    So far I’m on board- but campy has to be on a reaaalll short lease. 

  51. Batman shacking up with Catwoman is the best idea, but they didn’t get too much mileage out of it in that issue. Bruce hasn’t been very personable, and has been pretty aloof. Hopefully we get some good sexy times with Bat and Cat.

  52. Finally got around to reading this issue. It looks as if Yanick Paquette used a lot of playboy esque photo’s for his poses. The stand out in this issue is Michel Lacombe’s inks.

  53. Bruce Wayne coming out and saying he funds Batman? Ugh Batman belongs in Gotham, ALONE and in the shadows, avenging his parents that way. How is he supposed to clean up the wordl when he hasn’t done it with Gotham? This is just a stupid story and I have hated Morrison’s entire Batman run, to the point I have stopped reading it on principle. He just clearly does not ‘get’ Batman. i mean, killing him? What a stupid, pathetic attempt to reboot a character that does not need it, all for cheap headlines. I really don’t like Morrison. Zenith and Anima man was really good, so was The Invisibles, but New X Men was all over the shop, Final Crisis made no sense and was too convoluted and then replacing Batman with Grayson? Didn’t they give Grayson his own title, like 5 years ago? And all so they could make a big song and dance about bringing him back. I could kill Wonder Woman just so I can do a two year arc about bringing her back. Simple

  54. @Jordan0061: If you’ve stopped reading it how would you know if it was stupid or not?

  55. @jordan – just to clarify, he never killed Batman

  56. @cutty—to be fair, Batman was referred to as "dead" by many DCU characters in many storylines. Granted thats because they didn’t understand what was happening to Bruce n the timeline but still. You could say that Bruce was "dead" in that he was time traveling in an almost limbo/purgatory like state and not living in the here and now. To the real world and everyone around him, he was indeed Dead. 

  57. @wally – yeah but its not like Morrison killed him and brought him back to life like Superman or Captain America or anyone else.  He sent him back in time and was very straightforward about it.  Of course you had to have some extensive DCU knowledge, or listen to a good podcast.

    People just find reasons to bitch (not you), they complained and complained and complained just because Morrison had an arc called "Batman RIP" coming out, its like they assumed he was going to kill Bruce before they even bothered to read anything.

  58. @cutty–well it didn’t help that the news media ran stories like "BATMAN IS DEAD!". CNN covered stuff like that. I was getting back into comics around the time of RIP so it was tough to grasp. I’m so so on Morrison. I didn’t like RIP or Final Crisis that much, but i’m coming around with his other stuff. 

    I think he did Kill Bruce Wayne in a sense…he’s clearly different now but you’re right, he didn’t shoot him in the head and put him in a casket or anything.  

  59. Haha, we’re definately getting close to semantics time.  I think you can confuse Morrison of maybe being confusing or not explaining the whole Omega Sanction in layman’s terms, but that’s about it.  Given that you knew the rules, he was very clear to the reader that Bruce was not dead.  If you want to say he expects too much from the reader, that’s a whole ‘nother conversation

  60. Yes, stories and characters should be one way, and one way only, forever. We’ll never get bored like that. And Batman has always been the exact same since 1939.

    Nothing new! That’s my motto in 2011.

  61. @cutty–oh i agree with you its all semantics and personal reads. Its all about the reader and what they bring. For me Bruce "died" and came back…. and i say that fully understanding that it wasn’t literal death and understanding the idea of the Omega Sanction thing and his time travel stuff…Thats just my take and how i’ve processed this entire thing. 

    I admit Josh…i was hesitant at first that Batman was changing. I went along with the ride and now i’m really interested in where its going. Change is good when its done right as this run is proving. When you do it just cause you need a sales jump and its kinda lame, it can ruin a character i think.  

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